Everyone is so focused on the “will they, won’t they announce it?” Apple-China Mobile deal that it’s all too easy to forget about the success Apple is already enjoying in China.

According to technology market research firm, Counterpoint Research, Apple’s share in China’s burgeoning smartphone market leaped to 12 percent in October — with the iPhone now the country’s third biggest smartphone player.

To put that 12 percent in context, this is quadruple the market share Apple had captured in September — which stood at just 3 percent.

The iPhone now ranks just below Samsung and Lenovo — which hold the no. 1 and no. 2 smartphone spots — while the remaining top positions are filled out by Coolpad, Huawei, and ZTE.

“The iPhone 5s didn’t attract long queues outside Apple retails stores [in China] as the iPhone 4s did [a] couple of years ago but it definitely was more successful compared to [the] iPhone 5,” Counterpoint director Tom Kang wrote in a note.

With a China Mobile deal in sight — meaning that all three mobile carriers will now carry the iPhone — Kang feels that this will ignite a “price war” that will boost the overall iPhone 5s sales in China.

If his projections prove correct, Kang speculates that Apple may be the number one smartphone in mainland China by December or January.

About the author

Luke Dormehl is a UK-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems, And Create More and The Apple Revolution, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme, and other publications. He'd like you a lot if you followed him on Twitter.

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